Even with the aid of the currently available imaging techniques, it is a time-consuming and complex process to evaluate the coronary vessel system, for example in order to measure stenoses or to estimate the extent of calcified or non-calcified plaque deposits. Different visualization methods with the aid of which the recorded vessel structures can be displayed are made available with the aid of the high computing ability of modern image computers. Examples of this are MIP (Maximum Intensity Projection), VRT (Volume Rendering Technique), SSD (Shadow Surface Display) or else combinations of these visualization methods that support the radiologist during diagnosis. A quantitative analysis of the vessel structures requires a segmentation of the structures from the 2D or 3D recorded images on the basis of which it is possible to measure quantitative variables such as, for example, the length or the diameter/length ratio of a stenosis.
Above all, relaying the recorded data or the data derived from the recorded images to other specialists, for example a cardiologist, constitutes a particular problem. The visualization methods used to date such as, for example, interactive 3D-VRT leads to images that are difficult to interpret in the context of a reduction to a 2D display.
Despite the state of digitization techniques and electronic networking in hospitals, printing such images out onto paper is frequently still always required in order to transmit the examination results to appropriate specialists for providing a diagnosis. In these instances, the investigation result is therefore generally accompanied by a report in which the vessel tree is described in simple words, for example by specifying the distance of a lesion from a fixed landmark such as, for example, a branch point or an anatomical abnormality. However, even with an accompanying report, it is frequently difficult for the person skilled in the art to reconstruct the actual vessel structure correctly from the two-dimensional images.